THE AD CAMPAIGN; A Morgenthau Attack, for Liberal Voters

By LESLIE EATON

Published: August 31, 2005

After his opponent released three advertisements highly critical of him, Robert M. Morgenthau, the Manhattan district attorney, began punching back on Monday with a new television ad that directly attacks the challenger, Leslie Crocker Snyder, a former judge. The ad, ''Clear Choice,'' focuses on the candidates' differing views on the death penalty. A spokesman for the campaign declined to say how much the commercial cost; since January, the campaign has paid about $472,000 to the producer and its parent, Squier Knapp Dunn Communications, according to filings with the city's Board of Elections.

PRODUCER -- KnickerbockerSKD.

ON THE SCREEN -- At first, the new ad repeats images from Mr. Morgenthau's first television commercial of this campaign, including a glowing quote from Eliot Spitzer, the state attorney general, and shots of the candidate standing on the courthouse steps, chatting with police officers and talking on the telephone at a large desk while a newspaper headline highlights his opposition to the death penalty. Then a shot of Ms. Snyder, taken from her first television ad, appears, along with the words ''Leslie Crocker Snyder Supports Death Penalty,'' in yellow lettering. The cover of her autobiography, ''25 to Life,'' is shown; the book opens and a sentence is highlighted: ''I would have been willing to give him the lethal injection myself.'' As Ms. Snyder reappears, a gavel comes down on the words ''Leslie Crocker Snyder, Wrong on the Death Penalty, Wrong for Manhattan.''

THE SCRIPT -- A narrator says: ''For district attorney, a clear choice. Eliot Spitzer calls Bob Morgenthau the best prosecutor in the nation. Morgenthau's innovative policies have brought crime in Manhattan down to record lows. And Morgenthau is leading the fight against the death penalty. Leslie Crocker Snyder supports the death penalty. She even told one defendant that she would have been willing to give him the lethal injection herself. Leslie Crocker Snyder. Wrong on the death penalty. Wrong for Manhattan.''

ACCURACY -- New York State's highest court struck down the death penalty last year. Ms. Snyder has said that she would request the death penalty if it were available for particularly heinous crimes and given corroborating evidence like DNA. The ad accurately quotes Ms. Snyder's book, although it showed the wrong page (the Morgenthau campaign says it has corrected that). But the case she was describing did not involve a death-penalty sentence; rather, she made the remark ''in a moment of anger,'' the book says, to a defendant had who pleaded guilty to a particularly brutal murder and rape that left the surviving victim's life in ruins. Ms. Snyder, who sentenced the defendant to 40 years in prison, yesterday called him ''the sickest criminal I have ever seen.'' Mr. Morgenthau has, indeed, been a longtime opponent of the death penalty.

SCORECARD -- Though Ms. Snyder has denounced the ad as misleading, it is likely to be very effective with liberal Manhattan voters, those most likely to turn out for the primary next month. LESLIE EATON